A Filipina Mom Blogger

The blog title, Touched by an Angel was inspired by my precious angel, Luijoe when he guided me towards the light at the end of the tunnel of despair (over his death).

I started this blog on February 24, 2006 with the initial focus on grief support in the Philippines but my blog has since evolved to cover a larger goal- to advocate social change. Hence, my blog is not only about grief education or my grief recovery. Topics also include Advocacy work, Parenting, health, & family life recovery, marriage, social commentary and my thoughts and opinions about eventful or uneventful days.

I blog for three reasons:

1. Share my grief journey and recovery principles. Many wonderful things have been happening to me. Sharing the changes in my new normal after the death of a child is one way of reaching out to others. I offer hope that life can still continue on despite the pain and that pain is a wonderful teacher.

2. I blog as a platform for advocacy. My blog’s focus is on assisting and participating in advocacy groups that may reap the benefits of blogging. My efforts will not be in vain because these groups will be able to complement their grassroots efforts in advocating social change.

“Touched by An Angel” advocacy has five main goals that are close to my heart:

2.1 Promote The Compassionate Friends Philippines and reach out to bereaved family members who have lost a child. (read more?). Through my experiences , this blog will hopefully educate family systems that grief is not a taboo subject. Grief is not limited to persons who have lost through the death of a loved one. My recovery blog also seeks to reach out to all those who are grieving from these losses , that there is hope. Pain is our greatest teacher. Regardless of where the pain comes from, there are always lessons to be learned.

2.2 Promote the Filipina of the Future who deserves a more empowered, diverse image online. Multiple, complex, and whole. As co-founder of Filipina Images, I proudly refer to myself as a Filipina Mom Blogger. I am proudly Filipina.

More than comforting those who have lost a child and women empowerment, I also want to save lives and reduce child mortality. The last 3 goals aims to ensure public health and child survival.

2.3 Suicide Prevention is everybody’s business. Educate our community that suicide is a preventable public health problem in the Philippines. Suicide should no longer be considered a taboo topic, and that through raising awareness and educating the public, we can SAVE lives

2.4. Promote Breastfeeding. I want to be part in saving the lives of 16,000 Filipino every year and 1.5 million babies dying every year throughout the world, because they were not breastfed.

2.5.Participate in Child Survival and parenting activities. More than the sheer number of children’s lives wasted, the one thing more alarming is the fact that they could have actually been prevented. I want to be part of UNICEF’s 4th Millennium Development Goal (MDG4) which has the objective of decreasing mortality among infants and children below 5 years of age by 2015.

I will be able to achieve all of these goals and achieve social impact by writing about it in my blog and participating in events and activities relevant to the advocacy.

3. Provide social commentary where I share my opinion on politics and current affairs. It’s my hope to contribute to the country’s progress through my relevant views and opinions..

How I Started This Blog (Video)

Awards and Recognition

Media Appearances and Mentions

• Dealing with Death at Mom Works, Lifestyle channel
• QTV Sweet Life on Child’s Grief
• Proudly Filipina
• Kapuso Ko Jessica Soho Feature on Blogging
• Catching the Blog
• ANC Shop Talk
• ALI’s Mother Day Feature
• Bloggers chronicle typhoon’s fury in Metro Manila
• Cozy reunion for small but growing RP blog community
• Filipina Images on She Ka
• Gathering stories from wounded healers
• Her Life as a Blogger
• Interview with Sunday Inquirer Magazine
• Manila Bulletin “Blog-O-Rama”
• Marie Claire
• Modernong Maria Clara on 100% Pinoy, GMA 7
• Mom Bloggers at Lifestyle Channel
• MOMS QTV Interview
• Mother Bloggers at Lifestyle Inquirer
• Philippine Blog Awards cites 22 best blogs in RP
• Salamat Doc
• Straight Talk

Current Blog Design

Touched By an Angel’s customized header was designed by Juan Karlo Licudine of pinoyblogero.com . My angel must have guided Karlo’s hands because the header design is awesome. My instructions for the drawing were “we’re a family in a bonding moment”. If you want to learn how to blog, watch this Youtube video of bloggers

Blog Growth- August 17, 2008
1. Alexa Traffic Rank for aboutmyrecovery.com: 252,319
2. Page Strength – 5/10
3. Blog Juice- 3.3
4. Blog worth – $145,086.78
5. Ratified- 37th place
6. Technorati:- Authority: 257 · Rank: 17,343

As of August 2007, the theme came with the following wordpress plugins:

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Some of the photos were taken using my Nokia N70 which has 2 megapixels resolution. In June 3, 2006, I bought a Canon Powershot A530 so I can take sharper photos. From October 2006 to May 2008, I have been using a Canon Powershot A710 IS, a 7.1 megapixel camera with 6 X optical zoom and Image Stabilizer. These days I am using a Nikon D40

Technorati Tags: Philippines